Alpha Protocol Preview

Meeting a mercenary cougar in Obisidian's spy-rpg

You're reading an E3 2009 preview, which we've broken into three sections to make it easy to sift through during this week of convention madness. Check out E3.1UP.COM for all (meaning words, screens, and videos) of our E3 2009 coverage.

What's the game about? Imagine a modern day espionage role-playing game where your basic approach to most situations boils down to "Am I James Bond, Jason Bourne, or Jack Bauer?" That's pretty much what Obsidian (the developers of titles such as Fallout 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and itsexpansions, and Knights of the Old Republic 2) is doing with Alpha Protocol. We haven't gotten too many actual plot details about the eponymous Alpha Protocol itself, but hey, a spy RPG from Obsidian is enough of a description to intrigue us.

What's new for E3? Obsidian producer Matthew Rorie demonstrated a new mission, highlighting several of Alpha Protocol's features. The context of the mission is that the player, Agent Michael Thorton, is tasked with hitting a Russian Mafiya base to destroy some missiles being stored there. Before starting the mission, Rorie shows off the character customization and the safe-house (the hub area that Thorton uses in-between missions), focusing on things like changing Thorton's appearance, allocating his skill points into assault rifle use or Technical Aptitude or Martial Arts, and even customizing individual weapons (like adding scopes, suppressors, different types of magazines, and so forth).

When the actual mission starts, Thorton is immediately presented with a dialogue/decision point: the Russian Mafiya is under attack by another organization known as the VCI. The VCI representative, Sie, is best described as a "mercenary cougar", and she proposes a temporary alliance with Thorton. Throughout the whole dialogue system, I notice that the responses are timed, and they never repeat; you can't dilly-dally while talking and you can't just have the characters endlessly restate stuff over and over again. The conversation briskly moves forward, and depending on the choices you make, you gain and lose reputation with the individual character you're dealing with. So there doesn't seem to be a global "are you a good or bad dude" meter; it's more like how much does each significant character likes you. Rorie has Thorton make direct, aggressive, and no-nonsense statements, gains quite a bit of reputation with Sie as a result, and then agrees to a temporary truce.

Gameplay-wise, Rorie does mostly run-and-gun maneuvers, and the game looks a bit like a traditional cover-based third-person shooter with RPG mechanics (like Mass Effect). Rorie uses abilities (Alpha Protocol's version of spells) such as Focus Fire (which lets him quickly lock onto foes) and Fury (a Martial Arts skill that temporarily boosts melee damage significantly). On occasion, Rorie uses some gadgets (he's quite fond of remote mines), and engages in some minigames; one is hacking a security door by connecting some power nodes on a circuit board, while the other is hacking a computer by finding the correct string of code hidden among others on-screen. Another interesting note is that if you approach an enemy with stealth, you have the option to either kill him or perform a non-lethal takedown. Those actions can affect your reputation; Rorie notes, "You'd probably want to do the non-lethal moves if you're breaking into the CIA or an embassy of a friendly nation." Also, Rorie points out Alpha Protocol's twist on Fallout's Perks system: you don't select Perks ahead of time; instead, you earn Perks based on the decisions you make and on your general gameplay style.

Upon reaching the actual missiles, Thorton is faced with two choices: complete his objective by destroying them, or claim to destroy them while, in reality, he diverts the shipment to an arms dealer he knows. If he does the latter, he might lose some reputation with his handlers, but also gain the chance to buy some new equipment. Or he can just play it straight and finish the mission as he should. Afterwards, Thorton comes to another decision point: to betray Sie or not. Rorie decides to betray her, and has Thorton engaged in a miniboss battle, noting that this battle is completely optional and could have been avoided by, well, not deciding to try to kill her during the dialogue sequence.

What's our take? The moment-to-moment combat looks a bit too shooter-ish, and I'm wondering how viable a "non-run-and-gun" character would be. Though, the tweaks and changes that Obisidian have made to other mechanics like dialogue, skills, and perks intrigue me a lot. I'm hoping that there's a good balance between combat and character/plot development, and that it all feels fine when I actually get to play it.